Meetings in No Man's Land by Marc Ferro

Author:Marc Ferro
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472112804
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

Finding the Right Words

Once fraternization was engaged, it might not be possible to find the right words (Elie Vandrand, 9 May 1915): ‘We chat together but we don’t understand each other much, we often say Comrades, cigarettes, tobacco, cognac’, or men would use the words learned at school, or a German who had worked in Paris would bring out his slang. In all cases, hand-shaking was a clear signal and the exchange of items, without money changing hands, could also be undertaken without much need to talk. Barter of French bread for German cigarettes and cigars was the most usual practice.

The Germans had little difficulty in making themselves understood – as a sergeant in the 88th RI wrote to Paris, probably to his wife, on 19 July 1917:

‘As I wrote to you yesterday, I was on watch from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. in the morning. At 3 a.m., around daybreak, the Germans greeted us at the forward posts and tried to talk to us. Oh, they aren’t far away here, barely twenty-five metres. We manage to understand them, with gestures or a bit of chat. They were starving, we showed them bread, that’s what they wanted.’

Some soldiers mentioned exchanging French pipe tobacco for cigarettes; it was more unusual for the Germans to offer food. Alfred Joubaire recorded on 15 December 1915: ‘A Boche brought some rum over to the French trench. A Frenchman and a Bavarian linked arms and had themselves photographed.’

One man in the 29th BCP received some ham: ‘We still talk with with them, we smoke Boche tobacco and they eat good bread with us. They give us ham and plenty of other things.’

The later event happened in October 1917 when food supplies were severely affected by the blockade. Later still, on 11 November 1918, a poilu in the 163rd RI recounted that he had received some German sausage. In order not to upset his contact opposite he also received German bread ‘which we accept for appearances’ sake, but not to eat because it’s not good and it’s all black’.

The most elaborate conversations touched on food, family, and peace-time life. The Germans were encouraged to surrender, and sometimes their deserting was discussed (Léon Werth):

‘One night, a French-speaking German announced that he and four of his comrades were fed up with the war and wanted to surrender. The sergeant who was in command of the French advanced post showed him which trench he would be in next day. They agreed a time. But only three of them came over. They said that they had taken advantage of a sleepy sentry. They apologized for their two comrades, just as one apologizes for two friends who fail to honour an accepted invitation. At the last moment the two missing men had been ordered away on kitchen duty.’

The wild hopes that kept emerging in conversations in the French lines reappeared when German soldiers shared in the discussions: peace and the end of suffering. In January 1917, for example, the French soldiers in the 5th RI and the Germans were unable to reassure each other.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.